Never too old to rewire a Chandelier

Saturday 17^th February

Got up about 7.15 …light rain , and had intended doing blog, when decided to rewire the old Spanish chandelier…as one does. We put in the auction a couple of weeks ago, but it didn’t make it’s reserve of 5 €, and J is quite fond of it. I took it to bits to see how the wires ran to the 5 lights, and it seemed relatively simple…..2 sets of thin white wires from each light wrapped around the 2 main wires and taped…no earth !!

Found some of Ricardo’s left over blue and black wires and ran them through the main stem of the chandelier, and wired up both sets of the 5 wires to each. I broke a key internal nut at this stage, and left the problema to have breakfast.

After breakfast, took stuff to punto limpio and went to ferreteria to get stuff to progress jobs such as downstairs bathroom lock, TV ariel connections etc. Home to varnish bath board, and try to hang chandelier. I hadn’t left enough wire to hang it at a reasonable height, the nut was still broken, and I lost a tiny screw for the little connector box for the wires, so scuppered again.

J spent the day cleaning in preparation for her daughter L’s visit , arriving Sunday evening.

After lunch, I decided to rewire chandelier again with longer wires, and went in search of ferreteria for the little electrical screw ….Ferreterias that are open on a Saturday afternoon are few and far between……anyway, found one open on top road which seemed to specialise in hunting and fishing….rifles, pistols, fishing reels etc…..and the electrical bit.

I super-glued the broken nut…..it had fallen out previously, and measured up all the wire and put 2 extra links in the chain supporting the chandelier, linked up the wires and amazingly, it worked first time !!.....my first bit of proper electrical work.

I started to put the lampshades on the new lounge chandelier, but it was clear that the weight was on wire rather than chain…..I checked out what was under rose, and was concerned at what I found. ….I could have done a better job, and I’ve only done 1 in my life ….about 10 minutes ago !!.